Treatment and/or monitoring of various types of medical conditions may utilize implantable electronic devices (IEDs). Such IEDs may include, without limitation, implantable pulse generators (IPGs), implantable cardiac monitors (ICMs), and the like. IPGs generate an electrical current for delivery to a target location of a patient for treatment. For example, pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) drive an electrical current into cardiac tissue to treat various cardia conditions. Similarly, neuromodulators or neurostimulators deliver electrical current into particular regions of the spinal cord or other body system to manage chronic pain and/or actuate or otherwise control an aspect of that body system. ICMs, on the other hand, are generally used to monitor heart function and/or other electrical signals without administering electrotherapy.
IEDs typically include a housing that isolates internal electronic components from tissues and bodily fluids surrounding the IED. Discrete electrical signals are passed through the housing along an electrical pathway between the internal electronic components within a hermetic environment and external electronic components outside the hermetic environment. Conventionally, the electronic pathway is a feedthrough comprised of conductive elements assembled within a dielectric material through a process providing a hermetic seal between the dielectric materials and the conductive elements.
Such conventional feedthrough assembly procedures are often cumbersome, complex, and unaccommodating for disparate configurations and/or treatment applications. For example, a number of conductive elements may range from a single conductor to hundreds, with the inputs and outputs needed for passing each conductor through varying depending on the electrical current and/or sensitivity parameters of the treatment application. Further, a size, shape, material, and/or location of each of the conductors is often dependent on an input/output from the internal electrical components, and connection methods for each end of the conductors varies based on whether the connection is within or outside of the hermetic environment.
The hermetic seal of the feedthroughs are commonly created using a high temperature reflow, brazing, or sintering process, where the choice of material for the feedthrough must be carefully selected to provide sufficient thermal stability during the process. This material selection thus limits the ability to adapt aspects of the feedthrough to accommodate various configurations and/or treatment applications. With the complexity and number of input/outputs for IEDs continuing to grow with the enhancement of therapeutic and diagnostic capabilities, there is a need in the art for a customizable IED that is less expensive and labor intensive to manufacture. It is with these observations in mind, among others, that various aspects of the present disclosure were conceived and developed.